February 21, 2023
by Eric Stillman
In Philippians 2, Paul exhorts the Philippian church to strive for loving unity by putting the interests of others above their own and following Jesus’ example of sacrificial service. While this mindset translates to every possible situation in which we might find ourselves, let me share eight practical ways that you can put your neighbor’s interests above your own on Sunday morning at NewLife, or at whatever church you attend:...Keep Reading
Posted in: Church life Tags: Discipleship, Love, Church life
October 11, 2022
by Eric Stillman
A common refrain I have been hearing from older generations of workers is that younger employees require what feels like an unhealthy amount of affirmation and praise simply for doing their job. Whether this stems from helicopter parenting, the “everyone gets a trophy” mindset or from being used to getting “likes” and “follows” for everything you do online, it does feel like, more than ever, any criticism is seen as doing violence to another person. And that is a dangerous mindset to have....Keep Reading
Posted in: Relatonships Tags: Love, Friendship, Criticism
October 19, 2021
by Eric Stillman
One of the all-time genius psychology studies was conducted by John Darley and Daniel Batson in the 1970’s at Princeton Theological Seminary. Darley and Batson were studying the psychology of prosocial behavior – why people do good things for others. Specifically, they wanted to examine whether acts of kindness are due more to innate qualities or to situational factors....Keep Reading
Posted in: Love Tags: Love, Good Samaritan
February 23, 2021
by Eric Stillman
I met Gino Marozzi in the fall of 1998. I was the 22-year-old youth pastor of NewLife Christian Fellowship, and his twin daughters, Nikki & Tori, had just started attending my youth group. Soon, they began attending NewLife on Sundays, and Tori expressed an interest in singing on the worship team. Gino joined her, eager to support his daughter as the loving father he was....Keep Reading
Tags: fellowship, Love, Gino Marozzi
July 24, 2019
by Eric Stillman
This morning, I was watching a video in which a couple of counselors were teaching a unique way of doing premarital counseling. Their approach was focused on helping a couple understand each other’s stories, so that they might love and support each other better. As I observed the couple who was being counseled, I immediately noticed that the woman was wearing a lot of makeup and seemed to have given a lot of attention to her looks. As I followed along with the session, the counselor asked each individual to share a scene from their story that stood out to them as particularly influential in their lives. The woman shared about a scene from health class in elementary school. ...Keep Reading
Tags: Discipleship, Judgment, Love
April 30, 2019
by Eric Stillman
Very rarely do I use this space to link to someone else’s writings, but I wanted to share with you a story I read recently that left me in tears, challenged, and inspired. It was written by Skip Hollandsworth in the Texas Monthly (can’t say I ever read that before) about an unlikely friendship between a formerly homeschooled evangelical Christian girl named Jaelyn and a Muslim exchange student from Pakistan named Sabika, and the school shooting that changed their lives and families forever....Keep Reading
Tags: Love, Friendship
February 19, 2019
by Eric Stillman
I am a very fearful person. I often feel as if anxiety is my predominant emotion, as I walk through my life avoiding conflict and difficult situations that, for some unknown reason, I fear will be the death of me. Never mind, of course, that typically when I have to face one of those situations, I find myself surviving unscathed, and even grateful that I went through it instead of working so hard to avoid it. Nevertheless, the bottom line is that I struggle with fear and anxiety on a daily basis....Keep Reading
Tags: Fear, Anxiety, Love
May 22, 2018
by Eric Stillman
I recently read Brennan Manning’s autobiography, All is Grace. Manning is a former Catholic priest and traveling speaker, best known for his book The Ragamuffin Gospel, which is still my favorite book outside of the Bible. I heard him speak in 1995, when I was a new believer and he “opened” for Rich Mullins at South United Methodist Church in Manchester, and have read most of his books. Manning has an ability to communicate the love and grace of God in a way that is profoundly beautiful and always reminds me that “Jesus loves me just as I am, not as I should be, since none of us are as we should be.”...Keep Reading
Tags: Grace, Love
April 10, 2018
by Eric Stillman
There may be no more poignant reminder that Jesus was not only fully God but fully man than this passage from the last days of Jesus’ life. Facing an impending betrayal and certain death, Jesus walks into the Garden of Gethsemane to be with his Father, and says to Peter, James, and John, “stay with me.” In this moment of incredible agony, where he will be confronted by the temptation to give up his march to the cross, Jesus does not want to be alone, but asks his friends to remain with him....Keep Reading
Tags: Discipleship, Love
November 1, 2016
by Eric Stillman
It is worth noting that Jesus, when asked what the greatest commandment was, did not say “BELIEVE in God.” He said “LOVE God.” I know many people who have a hard enough time believing in God, and others who would point to their belief that God is real as evidence of their faith. But Jesus has the audacity to say that we are not just to believe in God, but to love God. In fact, James goes as far as to say that belief in God puts us on par with the demons of hell, for even they believe in God (and probably with greater certainty than we do!) (James 2:19)....Keep Reading
Posted in: Discipleship Tags: Discipleship, Love
July 26, 2016
by Eric Stillman
One of the challenges of pastoral ministry is that there are very few aspects of the job that can be checked off as complete. There is a sermon to preach every Sunday, and a newsletter to put out every Tuesday, but most of the work is ongoing: discipling people, training leaders, caring for struggling people, and so on. When there are 150-200 people who call NewLife their home, and only 7 days in a week, clearly decisions need to be made and priorities need to be set, because you can not give everyone all the time you would like to give.
One of the statements I heard early in my ministry, which has helped me tremendously, was by Mike Yaconelli, a pioneer in youth ministry....Keep Reading
Posted in: Love Tags: Love, Friendship
July 12, 2016
by Eric Stillman
The first time I heard Jesus’ great commandment, which is found in Matthew 22:34-40, my seven year-old brain assumed that “love your neighbor” meant to love the Heaths and the Blooms, the two families who lived next door to us. Eventually, of course, I came to understand that Jesus’ exhortation was not meant to be taken literally, but that my neighbor was any other human being (even our enemies, as Jesus illustrates in the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:29-37).
But what if Jesus really did mean to truly focus on loving our actual neighbors, the ones that live around us?
...Keep Reading
Posted in: Love Tags: Outreach, Love
May 24, 2016
by Eric Stillman
There may be no more poignant reminder that Jesus was not only fully God but fully man than this passage from the last days of Jesus’ life. Facing an impending betrayal and certain death, Jesus walks into the Garden of Gethsemane to be with his Father, and says to Peter, James, and John, “stay with me.” In this moment of incredible agony, where he will be confronted by the temptation to give up his march to the cross, Jesus does not want to be alone, but asks his friends to remain with him.
Many of us have found ourselves watching a loved one facing a time of intense suffering, wishing that there was something we could do to make it all better. ...Keep Reading
Posted in: Love Tags: Suffering, Love
April 19, 2016
by Eric Stillman
When I was a youth pastor, I went to a training once that was led by a high profile youth ministry organization. With great enthusiasm, they challenged us to do a “Great Commission Competition” in our youth group. Basically, this competition would include dividing the youth group into 3-4 groups, and then giving them a challenge: whichever group could invite the most friends to youth group over the next three months would get a free trip to Six Flags (sponsored by the adults in the church, naturally). The person pitching this event to us raved about how our youth group could grow significantly through this challenge, and bring many people to Christ....Keep Reading
Posted in: Love Tags: Love, Marketing
March 15, 2016
by Eric Stillman
Love, as DC Talk put it so many years ago, is a verb. Loving your neighbor, therefore, is not primarily a matter of emotion, but shows itself in practical ways. With that in mind, consider these eight practical ways that you can love your neighbor on Sunday morning at NewLife, or at whatever church you attend:...Keep Reading
Posted in: Church life Tags: Church, Love
February 16, 2016
by Eric Stillman
In light of the recently passed Hallmark holiday celebrating romantic love, let me share one of my favorite passages from one of my favorite authors, Brennan Manning, from his book The Signature of Jesus, on what real love looks like:
“On the night of December 13, during what began as a long and lonely hour or prayer, I heard in faith Jesus Christ say, ‘For love of you I left my Father’s side. I came to you who ran from me, fled me, who did not want to hear my name. For love of you I was covered with spit, punched, beaten, and affixed to the wood of the cross.’...Keep Reading
Posted in: Love Tags: Jesus, Love
June 30, 2015
by Eric Stillman
This past Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that “same-sex couples may exercise the fundamental right to marry.” On Sunday, I was reading the editorial page of the Hartford Courant and couldn’t help but notice the juxtaposition of two starkly different articles. The first, written by Susan Campbell, a longtime Courant religion writer, celebrated the Supreme Court ruling. The second, by Russell Moore, a prominent Southern Baptist leader, was against the ruling and gave advice on how the church should respond. But as I read through both articles, I found myself shaking my head and embarrassed. Let me explain....Keep Reading
Posted in: Love Tags: Love, Same-sex marriage
March 17, 2015
by Jessica Wojcik
In the 1960’s the Beatles came out with a song entitled, “All you need is Love”. Now I wasn’t alive during that time, but I believe they were truly onto something there with their message! John Lennon said in a later interview (before he died), that with that song they were trying to send a message to the world and I think it’s a message that we still need to hear today! All you need is love!
Now I could get super spiritual here and point to the fact that God is love and therefore the actual message is that all you really need is Him, which I absolutely believe to be true, but I think there’s more to it than just that. I think when we really understand the love of God….the love He has for the world and for us as individuals….it changes everything! When the love of Christ infiltrates your heart, you can’t help but see the world differently, to see yourself differently, and to see others differently!...Keep Reading
Posted in: God's love Tags: God's love, Love
December 9, 2014
by Eric Stillman
One of the greatest realities of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is that those who trust in Him and have been saved are adopted into the family of God, becoming children of the Heavenly Father, full heirs of all that belongs to Him. Consequently, one of the greatest ways we can preach the gospel to the world is through following our Father‘s example and becoming people and families who adopt others. There are certainly formal ways to do this, by adopting or fostering children who have been abused or neglected or have no parents, but there are many other ways to have an adoptive attitude towards the world. For example:...Keep Reading
Posted in: God's love Tags: Adoption, Love
February 18, 2014
by Eric Stillman
There may be no more poignant reminder that Jesus was not only fully God but fully man than this passage from the last days of Jesus‘ life. Facing an impending betrayal and certain death, Jesus walks into the Garden of Gethsemane to be with his Father, and says to Peter, James, and John, ‘œstay with me.‘ In this moment of incredible agony, where he will be confronted by the temptation to give up his march to the cross, Jesus does not want to be alone, but asks his friends to remain with him....Keep Reading
Posted in: Love Tags: Service, Love
